MONSTROSITY The Passage Of Existence

It’s been a while since we last heard of Floridian cult death metallers Monstrosity – 11 years to be more precise, when their previous album Spiritual Apocalypse was unleashed upon the world. Some rare words here and there but nothing serious so I rightfully thought that this beast has been lain to dust forever more. So the news of sixth Monstrosity’s full length, and on huge Metal Blade, was received with breath of relief as it is always good to have originators of the style among us an truth be told, Monstrosity have never released some Illud-like dreck of an album. So their new long player entitled The Passage Of Existence is in front of me and I can say for starters that the band did not kiss the dust once again and the long break did not do damage to this machinery. Monstrosity always stood for certain brand of Floridian DM, which is brutal but in the same time also technical but without interrupting the mauling flow of the tracks, so it is also the case here. The album starts with couple of mid tempo tracks and Radiated picks up a pace a bit which is welcome feat if you ask me, as I always have preferred this band in its more attacking mode. I wish that some of these slower moments were trimmed a bit but on the other hand, when one delves deep into the album you must admit that all the songs are crafted masterfully and the experience of this band truly shows. Monstrosity are not trying to reinvent the death metal wheel and truth be told, I do not think they would be capable to do that but they rather chose to perform what they do best, so I feel that none of their fans would feel let down by The Passage Of Existence. All of band members’ playing and production are also at the high level, so it is clear that The Passage Of Existence is well rounded album in all angles. The band’s golden era which consists of their first 3 full lengths is well behind them but they are still going strong throughout all label problems and changing of band members. Now we can only hope that Monstrosity, backed up by such a strong label, will not make such a long break once again!